Open up higher ed to serve everyone

Thursday

Jan 30, 2014 at 7:19 PMJan 30, 2014 at 7:19 PM

Wayne Wagner

Independence

To the editor:

The cost of tuition for higher education is ridiculous. Of course it can be justified what with university buildings on the order of state or federal capitol buildings and the great cathedrals, not to mention science laboratories and such the envy of industry, etc. The fact remains, students should not be saddled with debt for tuition.

Why not for any citizen, similar to the G.I. Bill:

• Any qualified student could attend any school, tuition free.

• Online courses would be accepted as those in school.

• A student could take as many or as few classes as desired, allowing time to earn a living at the same time.

• Credentials earned would count the same as in school.

This same reasoning could apply to the trades. This is now pretty much controlled by the unions but could be developed with or without union cooperation. An example: My grandson, an electrician, makes about what the average MD does.

There are many things separating the top 1 percent from Main Street, not the least of which is noted above.